How long did the Ataco fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 September 2026 and 20 September 2026: 8 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,493 hectares (24.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ataco (2,393 ha, 2.3 %); Chaparral (116 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very high.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Colombia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

CO · Colombia · 2026-09-13 → 2026-09-20

Ataco fire, September 2026 Ataco, Chaparral

Out · last detection 17 Sept 2026, 17:58 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2026 in Ataco, Colombia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,493 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Tolima since 2016 (of 17 with a page). Number 52 in Colombia in 2026, of 159.

The power measured by the satellite is low (13.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 2,493ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 8days; 13 Sept 2026 – 20 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 13 Sept; 2026
Heat detections: 33; in a single hotspot: 13 MW
Danger at start: 34; High · FWI index
Energy released: 138MW; sum of detected power

Play back 17 Sept 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept20 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

13141517

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high

33km/h · peak gust

23%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 23 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Ataco where it started

2,393 ha

2.3 %
Chaparral

116 ha

0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day	High	Min. humidity	Peak gust	Rain	Danger (FWI)
8 Sept	35.3 °C	28 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
9 Sept	36.5 °C	24 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
10 Sept	36.5 °C	25 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
11 Sept	35.6 °C	30 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
12 Sept	37.0 °C	26 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
13 Sept	34.4 °C	31 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
14 Sept	35.3 °C	29 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
15 Sept	36.7 °C	25 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
16 Sept	35.0 °C	30 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
17 Sept	36.5 °C	25 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
18 Sept	37.5 °C	24 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
19 Sept	36.5 °C	26 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
20 Sept	37.7 °C	23 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
21 Sept after	37.5 °C	23 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
22 Sept after	33.8 °C	44 %	22 km/h	0.1 mm	High 27
23 Sept after	33.0 °C	49 %	26 km/h	1.1 mm	Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 6 Sept 2026

After · 27 Sept 2026

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 8 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 53 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak53 µg/m³

Days over the guideline3 days

PM1056 µg/m³

Optical depth0.39

WHO 15

67891011121314151617181920212223

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 33Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Colombia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ataco fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 September 2026 and 20 September 2026: 8 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,493 hectares (24.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ataco (2,393 ha, 2.3 %); Chaparral (116 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Colombia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 123 · 119

UNGRD · Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres ↗
IDEAM ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 123 · 119.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.

Where it burned